The Georgia Southern and Armstrong State Consolidation Implementation Committee met Wednesday to discuss the academic structure of the new Georgia Southern University.

The committee has announced the new Georgia Southern will consist of nine colleges: The Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing, the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, the College of Business, the College of Education, the Waters College of Health Professions, the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, the College of Science and Mathematics and the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies.

A 15-11 vote led to the split of Georgia Southern's College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences into two colleges. The vote to create the College of Arts and Humanities and the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences comes after feedback was collected from those who work at Armstrong and Georgia Southern.

During the meeting the idea was discussed to possibly have one dean for both the College of Arts and Humanities and the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. But ultimately it was decided each college will have it's own dean, which is more costly for Georgia Southern but we are told by leaders the responsibility has been accepted.

Dr. Jaimie Hebert, President of Georgia Southern University, said, "we went forward with the original proposal but with the understanding that I would provide the commitment, and I mean a commitment in spirit as well as funds to support the interdisciplinary work between those two colleges."

Here are the eight undergraduate colleges approved today by the committee:

Dr. Linda Bleicken, President of Armstrong State University said, "I think the best part about what we decided at the end was it was a collaborative discussion everyone had an opportunity to speak and put forward their own ideas."